Method and apparatus to help promote contact of gas with vaporized material

Abstract

Vaporizable material is supported within a vessel to promote contact of an introduced gas with the vaporizable material, and produce a product gas including vaporized material. A heating element supplies heat to a wall of the vessel to heat vaporizable material disposed therein. The vessel may include an ampoule having a removable top. Multiple containers defining multiple material support surfaces may be stacked disposed within a vessel in thermal communication with the vessel. A tube may be disposed within the vessel and coupled to a gas inlet. Filters, flow meters, and level sensors may be further provided. Product gas resulting from contact of introduced gas with vaporized material may be delivered to atomic layer deposition (ALD) or similar process equipment. At least a portion of source material including a solid may be dissolved in a solvent, followed by removal of solvent to yield source material (e.g., a metal complex) disposed within the vaporizer.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A vapor delivery vessel for vaporizing and delivering vaporized source material, the vessel comprising:
 a peripheral vessel wall bounding an interior volume; 
 a gas inlet and a gas outlet arranged in at least intermittent fluid communication with the interior volume, the gas inlet being adapted to supply a gas to the interior volume; 
 a plurality of support surfaces defined by a plurality of holders; 
 a porous steel material provided in a flow path extending between the gas inlet and the gas outlet and positioned over a top holder of the plurality of holders; and 
 a lid, wherein the porous steel material is pressed over the top holder by the lid. 
 
     
     
       2. The vapor delivery vessel of  claim 1 , further comprising at least one internal gas carrying member disposed within the interior volume and communicatively coupled to the gas inlet. 
     
     
       3. The vapor delivery vessel of  claim 2 , wherein said at least one internal gas carrying member extends through said at least one of the plurality of support surfaces. 
     
     
       4. The vapor delivery vessel of  claim 1 , the plurality of support surfaces defined by the plurality of holders include a plurality of passageways adapted to permit gas flow therethrough, wherein passageways defined in adjacent holders are unaligned. 
     
     
       5. The vapor delivery vessel of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of holders are adapted for placement at different levels within the interior volume, and at least one holder includes an upwardly extending sidewall, a plurality of upwardly-extending protuberances, and wherein said sidewall is taller than each of said protuberances. 
     
     
       6. The vapor delivery vessel of  claim 1  comprising at least one associated heating element. 
     
     
       7. The vapor delivery vessel of  claim 1  wherein the porous steel material is porous stainless steel. 
     
     
       8. The vapor delivery vessel of  claim 1  wherein the porous steel material is a porous stainless steel frit. 
     
     
       9. The vapor delivery vessel of  claim 1  wherein the porous steel material is a porous stainless steel frit having a pore size in a range from 1 to 100 microns. 
     
     
       10. The vapor delivery vessel of  claim 1  wherein the porous steel material is a porous stainless steel disk. 
     
     
       11. The vapor delivery vessel of  claim 1  wherein the porous steel material is steel wool. 
     
     
       12. The vapor delivery vessel of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of support surfaces are disposed within the interior volume and adapted to support solid vaporizable source material in the flow path. 
     
     
       13. The vapor delivery vessel of  claim 12 , wherein at least one of the plurality of support surfaces comprise at least one protuberance through which the flow path passes. 
     
     
       14. The vapor delivery vessel of  claim 1  wherein the flow path takes a tortuous path through the porous steel material. 
     
     
       15. The vapor delivery vessel of  claim 1  wherein the porous steel material has pores of a larger size at a first end of the porous steel material and pores of a smaller size at an opposite end of the porous steel material, and wherein the flow path traverses the porous steel material from the first end to the opposite end. 
     
     
       16. A vapor delivery vessel of  claim 1 , wherein the porous steel material is a frit in the form of a disk.